Problem with alignment

[Emeness]

Took my 6 SE out last night and tried to align using SkyPortal on my iPad with SkyPortal module on scope. Using my iPad pressed  'connect and align'  and did 3 star alignment, first two attempts failed third attempt successful. Highlighted Polaris on iPad and used GOTO, saw scope on iPad slewing and locking on to Polaris. When I looked at scope it was pointing about 60 degrees north west of Polaris completely in the wrong direction.  I then did a normal alignment without SkyPortal using the telescopes key pad, alignment worked fine scope pointing directly at Polaris. Any ideas whats going on, why SkyPortal is giving scope wrong information?  Latitude and Longitude checked on iPad in SkyPortal App both correct. Thanks for any advice you can give and whether I might be missing something.

[mikeyj1]

I notice on Sky-Safari that it has the option of either an AZ or EQ type mount, and also the ability to connect to various types of Celetstron mount eg 6/8i or GT.  Might be different on the dedicated portal app, but i am interested to help you find a solution as i am buying the Skyfi at Christmas

The only other problem i had with my Nexstar mount was having the OTA on the wrong way around (i use the Skywatcher Mak, which has the finder on the other side)..

Mike

[JG777]

Have you ticked the box in Skyportal for Automatic daylight saving?

[Emeness]

Hi John  Yes I have.  Bit weird can't figure out why this is happening, was going to have another try tonight but I think its going to be too cloudy.

[Space Oddity]

Hi Emeness   Did you find out the cause of your misalignment with Skyportal? I recently bought a second-hand Nexstar 8SE and at the same time Skyportal. Like you when I tried to align with it, it came nowhere near the target (Capella).

[Emeness]

Hi Vacuum  Afraid not, its got even worse now. I have SkyPortal downloaded onto my iPad. It opens fine but when I switch to compass it jumps all over the place. Instead of covering 360 degrees it only covers about 45 degrees but strangely shows all points of the compass, North back to North again within this 45 degree arc. I've just updated my iPad to OS Sierra, don't know whether this could be affecting it. I made sure I downloaded the latest SkyPortal App for Mac so should work. I think the next step is to contact Celestron. 

[Space Oddity]

Hi Emeness, sorry to hear that your woes have increased. I have Skyportal on my Nexus tablet and I sometimes have problems with the compass but this was always resolved by recalibrating the tablet. One thought I had was how does the  app no what your starting position is? I always make sure that my scope is level but my starting position is arbitrary - maybe it should be facing North or something. If it is not too cloudy tonight I'll try to have another go. Maybe someone who is reading this thread and uses Skyportal could let us know how they set up. I'll let you know how I got on later.

[MBJ]

When you start sky portal instead of doing an autoalign do manual....change it in the app settings

 slew your scope to say vega  so it's in the centre of your fov....make sure vega is selected in the sky portal app and then click align....then calibrate......it will add vega as a reference point in the app and it knows your scope is pointing at it because it asks you to centre it on vega before you click calibrate.

it should then ask you to do an alignment......do the manual alignment it worked great for me.

 

hope this helps.

Edited October 24, 2016 by MBJ

[Space Oddity]

Hi M83, Many thanks for the advice, the next time I can see stars i'll give it a go - it's been overcast at night in the east since Saturday and it doesn't look like it is going to clear until Wednesday  t

[Emeness]

Thanks M83, I will try this on the next clear night.

[Emeness]

Sorry MBJ for posting M83, think a trip to Spec-savers is required.  

[Space Oddity]

Hi Emeness and MBJ (I went to Supersavers so I don't know what my excuse is ). I tried Manual Align on my Nexus but didn't have much success. I then had an attempt using Skyportal on my smartphone (LG G3 running Android 5.0) but that was terrible the controls were so laggy to use (press the move arrow and nothing would happen for 5 seconds and then it would move). I then managed to borrow an iPad (running OS 10.0.2) and tried the Sky Align method with no success (like before it was way off the target star). I then switched to Manual Align as suggested by MBJ and it worked perfectly .  Viewing conditions were not very good but I really enjoyed using Skyportal to show me around the night sky aligning up perfectly every time! I am going to give the Nexus another go to see if I can get it to manual align (if not I had better get saving for an iPad!).

So many thank to MBJ for his advice and I hope Emeness has success using this method as well.

[Debabrata]

Hi, I'm also facing the same problem. How to change the setting from auto-align to manual alignment? Can anyone please help?

[noah4x4]

On 04/10/2016 at 10:44, mikeyj1 said:

I notice on Sky-Safari that it has the option of either an AZ or EQ type mount, and also the ability to connect to various types of Celetstron mount eg 6/8i or GT.  Might be different on the dedicated portal app, but i am interested to help you find a solution as i am buying the Skyfi at Christmas

The only other problem i had with my Nexstar mount was having the OTA on the wrong way around (i use the Skywatcher Mak, which has the finder on the other side)..

Mike

I now use CPWI and it has been a while since I used a tablet, but if I recall correctly, I am pretty sure that when you select your scope in the  SkyPortal APP (or SkySafari) when using the SkyPortal external WiFi accessory you should select 'Celestron WiFi'.

Do NOT select any specific scope.

After that check that the APP is set to time = NOW in Time (see lower menu). Also that your devices Location Settings are yes. Other settings should be current location and current  date. Also check Daylight Saving Time (changes tonight in UK) . The error is almost certainly with Date/Time/Location.